Whirlwind.

Morning, morning!

Up with the sparrows again. We wake up with the morning light of the Africa. I guess that 04h30 is the perfect time to start your day. Ingrid and I went for a little walk at around 6 am just to get the cobwebs blown out of our travel filled heads.

After a wonderful Christmas day with Opa and Oma and the traditional Christmas dinner we sent them on their way and got into travel mode for our trip to visit family and friends that we may meet when we are there. It was a pretty uneventful pack and we all had some space left in our cases. Simply put, Summer clothes take less space. Bikini, Slops, Hat, Sunglasses, Wallet, Credit card and Passport. Check! By order of the Owner of the accommodation that we are going to I had to book and extra case for the kite surfing equipment. This was not optional!

It was an early start at 4am to drive to Brussels airport for Ingrid, Bo and I. Thankfully we had been able to organise a driver to drive our car back home so it was just stop and drop before we made our way into the terminal and to check in. We had an 8am flight to Amsterdam for the International flight to Johannesburg. Funny to not have a hand baggage as we had fitted pretty much everything in the checked baggage. I only had my laptop case as carry on baggage and Ingrid and Bo were travelling light too.

Brussels to Amsterdam went well. No issues with transfer to our International flight from AMS to Johannesburg. I heard the check-in lady at the gate say that all transfer baggage had made it onto the flight. Store that one. Up in the air and off to Johannesburg. Kudos to Ingrid's friend Jolien who is a stewardess at KLM and she posts on the flight app asking the crew to make us feel special. We were surprised once again and one of the crew came with a hand written note and 3 glasses of bubbly for us. We felt very special. Thank you.

I felt like it was the longest day flight of my life. I have a head cold which started the night before and although I did not feel sickly, I was out of sorts. I could not sleep for long at a time and watching a movie made my eyes water, so it was grin and bear it. Ingrid and I were on the middle and aisle of the 3 row seats and Bo was sitting across the aisle from us. Happy days. Our arrival at Johhies was on time and we were through customs in a blink as i took my family through the South African citizen queue as it was shorter and I have a South African passport. 

Enter the Gremlins. Our 1st 3 cases came off the baggage claim conveyor pretty quickly and the wait for the last case was futile as it turns out that that case had not left Amsterdam yet. This was the case with the obligatory kite surfing equipment. A short queue and filling in of forms etc. left us with an hour deficit on our expected departure from the airport. Thankfully the hotel shuttle runs 24/7 every 15 minutes. The airport hotel stay over is compulsory as we there are no connecting flights that leave after we land.

Onwards and forwards the next morning. 05h45 and we were back in the shuttle bus to the airport for our flight to PE. This too went like clockwork and by 09h50 we are safely in the arrival hall of PE International airport. Baggage claim brought the 1st of our left remaining cases and it was immediately apparent that Ingrid's case had been broken into. The lock was stukkend (Broken) and while I waited for our remaining luggage Ingrid checked the contents of her case and found the torn present packaging and we were 1 piece of Jewelery short. Bummer that it was the present that Fleur's boyfriend had given us to take and give to here for Christmas. My Fok. " Blijf met je tengels van een ander mans spullen af" (keep you little slimey fingers to yourself!!!) That is sooo irritating!!!!

50% of our luggage we had had an issue with. Okay, full disclosure! 75% of our baggage had a problem. My case arrived from the baggage conveyer with the lock clip hanging on by a thread.  That means a new case will be required for me. No theft this time. I did have all faith in KLM to get my delayed bag to me albiet a day or 2 later (Delivered to my door). Speaking of which, I had paid extra on both the international and Domestic flights for an extra bag and yet only flew with 1. I will have to claim for that too.

Onwards and forwards from the car rental company where we had reserved 2 cars as it was cheaper than 1 big car. Silly, but it is a true story! 1st stop lunch at the Mugg & Bean and then we drove in convoy to our final and much loved destination Cape St Francis to see our family and our youngest daughter Fleur who had been in South Africa for approximately 2 months working at a Backpackers in the Wilderness (Is the name of the town). She had been taken to CSF by my brother and family when they passed by on the 14th of December.

The unwritten rule of travelling to CSF is that one does not go to the final destination without first taking a drive by the beachfront. A silly rule, but that is just the way of things. Comply and you have fulfilled the entrance requirements! Ingrid was not waiting around at the beach for no man and took a sharp left back onto the main road going through to CSF to Jackpot (my brothers house) and a re-union with our beloved daughter.  We were home!

Hello Mother, Hello Father, Hello brothers and their families and Hello Fleur! Happy days!  Our trip had not been uneventful, but we had no major snags. Issues with suitcases were our only light irritations, but here we are hugging and hugging and laughing and talking with our loved ones! Yippee!